Big Isle, Kauai homes sales fall

The median home price on Kauai hit $850,000, but on just 33 transactions

Sales of homes on the Big Island and Kauai got off to a slow start this year, but prices rose on both isles, even setting a record on Kauai.

The median home price on the Garden Isle shot up to a record $850,000, but that came as only 33 existing homes were sold.

Debra Blachowiak, principal broker of Sleeping Giant Sotheby's, says the median home price on Kauai seems unusually high, and that it was likely skewed by a few large sales.

"It doesn't really reflect the market in total," she said. "I think it's going to widely fluctuate, but the general trend is that it's shifting more into a buyer's market. In some segments of the market, there's quite a bit of inventory and things are lasting longer. In other segments, there's not as much competition."

However, she said, contracts are being written and buyers are looking.

Only 18 condos changed hands on Kauai last month, 39 less than the same time last year. Prices went up 5.8 percent to $455,000 in January.

In December, the median home price on Kauai was $605,000, a 6 percent increase from the previous year, while condominiums recorded a median price of $470,000.

On the Big Island, the number of homes sold dropped to 113 in January compared to 151 in January of last year, a 26 percent drop, according to data from Hawaii Information Service.

The median price of a home on the Big Island climbed to $398,000, a 3.1 percent year-over increase from January 2005.

Condo sales on the Big Island also dropped by more than half, with only 31 changing hands in January at a median price of $346,300 compared to 68 at the same time last year.

The price decreased by 18 percent from January 2005, when it was at a median of $422,500.

Larry Hull, broker-in-charge of Clark Realty's Kona office, said he expects that market to come back toward the end of the year.

Condominium median prices on the Big Island at one point last year surpassed those of homes, due mostly to luxury properties on the Kohala coast.

But condo sales slowed to just nine on the South Kohala coast in January. None sold on the North Kohala coast.

In December, the median price for a single-family home hit $432,000, which was a 16.9 percent increase from a year earlier.